Digital marketing is important to small businesses, but it also takes time. Valuable time that some small business owners just don’t have. 

Don’t throw in the towel yet. Try these simple digital marketing hacks that will save time, so you can focus on other areas of your business.

There are numerous apps and services created to make marketing online easier. Here are a few that will help with some of the most basic digital marketing activities, email and social media.

Did you know that emails triggered by a user’s action, such as a welcome email, have the highest open and click-through rates? If possible, set up auto-responders for all your forms. This will help with your deliverability as well as allowing you to add a special offer to emails that are more likely to be opened. And you only have to create the email once and it will automatically send to your subscribers!

A drip email is a series of emails that is triggered when a user fills out your form (or you add them to your list). The emails will automatically send every few days or weeks (depending on the schedule you have set up ahead of time). This is a great way to keep in touch with your subscribers without needing to continually create fresh content. It can be used to highlight products, sell your opportunity, or tell them more about your business or organization. Bests of all, it will save you time!

There are numerous available services for marketers or small businesses to use that make social media posting less of a chore. Hootsuite, Social Champ, Buffer, and Tweetdeck are a few of the man choices. Pick one and try it out. For basic accounts, prices are low (or even free), and being able to schedule your posts ahead of time is invaluable. Instead of wasting an hour every day trying to maintain several social accounts, you can sit down for a few hours once and schedule several months of posts. 

The benefit of this is two-fold. Not only are you saving time by creating simplistic designs for your blogs and emails, but they will also be more mobile-friendly. And because mobile devices are becoming the most common way to browse the Internet and check email, having mobile-friendly content is crucial. 

Create some very basic email headers (I like to use easy graphic design site Canva.com, which is free when I provide my own images) and save them to reuse. Then reuse the same headers, and throw in a single relevant image to your emails or blog. You can create nice-looking graphics using a program like Canva.com and some stock images. Then include a link for your readers to get more information.

It takes time to create great original content. Make sure you are getting all you can from the content you create, such as blogs, images, or videos. Share them in your emails, schedule them numerous times in your social media, and link to them from other content.

Did you write a blog that is getting a lot of views? Try turning it into a slideshow to put on Slideshare to get even more traction from popular content. Don't just create content and forget about it. Reuse it!

Don’t be afraid to share content from other sources that would be useful or interesting to your audience. Not only will this save you time because you don’t have to create it yourself, it will also get your brownie points with the creator because everyone WANTS their content to be shared as much as possible. Just be sure you are crediting your source appropriately.

Offer guest posting or to spotlight other businesses on your blog. Again, this will get you fresh content without taking your time. The guest poster or featured business will also have the opportunity to reach a new audience, benefiting both parties. And don’t be shy about offering a post swap. This is a great way to reach new audiences yourself.

Tracking campaigns and viewing analytics is tough for most small businesses, so if you have trouble reviewing the stats of your digital marketing, you're in good company. Try using a service such as Kissmetrics that helps to track your campaigns for you. 

At the very least, review the results of your emails, blogs, and social posts to see which ones perform the best. Then try to create more content like it! You can also track clicks on your links by using link-shortening and tracking like Google's shortener.

Have any digital marketing hacks that save you time? Share them!